I'll give you that images that look good as thumbnails, but not at larger sizes, would be evidence for people judging from thumbnails.

However, it's your interpretation that they look good as thumbnails and horrid at larger resolutions. The thing I most dislike about this photo is that the headlight illumination runs down the side of the road. They should have parked their car on the road to take the picture (this would probably be completely illegal ). This is equally visible on the thumbnail. I might have voted a different way from the way you think I should have done (it's really impossible for me to make a judgment now of how I would have voted), but it wouldn't have been because of a difference between the thumbnail and full size image

Did you notice the sloppy post processing? This is not visible on thumbnail or small view. The noise levels are not visible on small view. When you vote on slideshow these faults start to show.

Keep in mind that this photo also won a 6th place on another challenge.

I noticed that there is a lot of noise in the full size image, but for me the eccentric illumination is much more disconcerting, and stands out even on the thumbnail. (Incidentally, the DPR voting tips says to vote on how aesthetically pleasing you find the image and does nor explicitly mention technical issues, and for me noise does not detract majorly from the aesthetics.) Clearly, I might have voted differently from you, but you would be wrong in concluding that was because I had not looked at the full size image and noticed the noise. Equally you cannot conclude that those who voted for the image had only looked at the thumbnail.

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